Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 168 - 5: Witch and Wizard

Chapter 168: Chapter 5: Witch and Wizard

Roman went to the archives of the Department of Residents.

This era hosted a plethora of individuals with identical names, making it quite troublesome to single out his Angel Envoys by name alone.

Jimmy followed Roman and busied himself for the better half of the day, finally managing to locate the identity records and residential numbers of those potential Angel Envoys.

This occupied a great deal of Jimmy’s time.

Although everyone’s household registration was recorded, it didn’t mean Jimmy was available.

In fact, Sige Town hadn’t settled down yet.

The personnel changes that Seth intended to implement required the cooperation of the Department of Residents.

This was easy to comprehend.

To recruit 600 new soldiers, they had to be registered militarily, owning a separate set of identity records, managed by Conquest Knights.

Allocating individuals to work in the Breeding farms also required an archive for Yaki—regardless of his literacy, the required documentation had to be there for job assignment.

Ministry of Military, Breeding, Casting, Agriculture, Manufacturing...

The accumulation of these tasks was truly daunting.

The young boy was busy every day with barely a moment’s rest.

Fortunately, work was progressing smoothly and, being under the direct authority of the Lord, nobody dared not to cooperate.

Jimmy’s tasks, though not complex, involved ceaseless copying of identity records, organizing them into registers, and delivering them to relevant departments, notifying related personnel to report to those departments.

They had an adequate supply of paper, but there was a significant shortage of management staff, a situation that couldn’t be helped.

Roman’s principle was that being too busy was no issue, to take it slowly, as all tasks would eventually be completed.

After all, it was a makeshift team; there was no difference between getting a ticket first or supplementing one later.

It was also no issue if mistakes occurred, the more the better.

Mistakes now meant fewer in the future.

This was primarily an exercise in improving the department’s operational capabilities.

Roman found his newly recruited Angel Envoys but did not meet them, instead directly arranging their assignments.

Everyone had strengths, and they should be deployed where they could perform best.

It was only at nightfall that Roman returned to the manor.

Upon entering the hall, some had already begun dining.

He imposed no strict rules here, especially for those around him; they could simply eat when mealtime came, no need to wait for him.

Yet, tonight’s dinner felt somewhat colder than usual.

...

His Conquest Knights were absent.

Roman had tasked them with establishing the military department, clearly defining the soldiers’ remuneration and setting up a reward and punishment system.

He proposed some ideas, and they were responsible for refining them and submitting the regulations for Roman’s review.

Those deemed rational would be adopted, those not would be dismissed.

Dick and Jet were clueless about managing this new department and felt overwhelmed.

Aaron and Green knew slightly more, but the pressure was immense, and they had no choice but to proceed despite their reluctance.

Roman’s basic requirement was to ensure the army’s purity and loyalty, timely payment of military salaries, and proper ideological education to prevent them from engaging in barbaric acts like pillaging villages or massacring towns.

A soldier’s salary could support the family, the pension needed to sustain a family for half a lifetime, and their parents and children should also receive preferential treatment in the future.

This was not a difficult matter.

A monthly military salary of five copper coins could buy seventy to eighty KGs of wheat, enough to support a family of five.

The initial pension for a soldier killed in action was five silver coins plus some goods, the family received policy preferential treatment, and would get a yearly indemnity of two silver coins for twenty years—as happened last year due to Bo Ge, the families of the guards who died in the mountains also received this treatment.

Retired soldiers would immediately receive a retirement fee of five silver coins and an annual retirement fee of one silver coin for the next twenty years.

The Ministry of Finance would specifically handle this expenditure.

But currently, Roman was without funds and could only issue IOUs.

Luckily, his prestige was still intact, and everyone trusted his ability to fulfill his commitments.

Roman had eliminated the worries of his soldiers, and anyone daring to break military discipline was courting death.

...

Seth and Nillie were also absent.

The latter’s identity was rather special, as he assisted Seth in managing Sige Town.

Some Sea Castle slaves were literate and helped Sige Town take on its current administrative burden.

Thus, the result was that the manor’s classroom had come to a standstill.

Roman had no choice but to arrange for the students to study on their own.

These days, the number of students in the classroom had doubled.

Roman temporarily let the students who had studied teach those who had not, in a one-on-one format.

The current state of the school...could only be described as a mess.

Unless exceptionally talented, even the quickest group of students would need over a year to complete their literacy education.

Tonight, only Gwivelle and Sanna were at the dinner table.

Roman leisurely asked Sanna if she had noticed anything unusual after her awakening.

He had a preliminary understanding of Sanna’s talents and skills but still needed to hear Sanna’s own description to know the details.

Sanna and Gwivelle were clearly two different styles of witches.

The only similarity was that neither of them realized they had awakened at first—Gwivelle thought she had eaten poisonous mushrooms when she first awoke.

Sanna was even more peculiar.

To be more specific, it’s complicated.

For instance, some people are naturally fast runners, but they must realize they have the talent for running and, through subsequent training, eventually become professional athletes.

It was the same for witches; they needed directed training to tap into their potential, master their abilities, and become competent witches.

Roman had little experience in how to develop a witch.

Because of Gwivelle and Sanna’s differences, he even doubted whether their training methods should be the same.

"Don’t just focus on having fun, let’s hear it, how do you plan to improve yourselves?"

Roman felt somewhat helpless; he knew nothing about athletes’ training methods. Some exercise techniques were only known to practitioners, let alone to witches who were Transcendents.

Sanna glanced at Gwivelle, and Gwivelle looked back at her.

Both of them shook their heads like rattle drums.

"Can’t Lord Roman teach us the witch’s magic?" Sanna asked.

She had unrealistic expectations of Roman, considering him omnipotent or all-powerful.

However, Roman now called himself a common mortal; he couldn’t beat Dick on horseback or Jet on foot.

Aron and Green were both stronger than him, as he had neglected training for the past year.

"Little witch! You need to understand that I am a man," Roman said sternly.

This title made Sanna feel quite intrigued.

"But I heard that those wandering tricksters and magicians all perform magic and call themselves wizards."

"Most of them are swindlers," Roman hummed lightly. Wizards were a general term for spellcasters, of which there were far too many, all bluffing and deceiving.

But they were merely trying to make a living, and Roman had no reason to nitpick.

"The real wizards have long been killed by the Church Knights."

Sanna, frightened, asked, "Will they come to kill me and Gwivelle too?"

"How can you expect corpses to kill people? That’s a wizard’s trick; they certainly won’t help the Church Knights stand up again," Roman said while picking up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, chewing it several times before swallowing it whole.

Sanna licked her lips; she found Roman’s speech charismatic and his actions graceful, capturing her attention.

There was a church in their small fishing village; their family had to give up fish catches every year, praying for the protection of All Gods.

That was until the church’s wooden doors were breached by pirates’ axes.

Reality taught them that divine protection was useless, and even if useful, it only protected the Church lords, not the common folks.

Moreover, witches were inherently hostile to the Church and could not coexist.

Now a novice witch, hearing Roman mentioning turning them into corpses, Sanna suddenly felt unafraid, almost excited and expectant.

Roman pondered, "First get familiar with your own abilities... I need to find a way to get you some magic knowledge."

Witch Forest was a good place; Sanna and Gwivelle could definitely find their place there, learning from the elder witches.

But he couldn’t let them go to Witch Forest for further education; that would be like throwing a meat bun to a dog.

The group of witches had unknown powers and movements.

This was a secret society, also the biggest secret society of this era, always persecuted and suppressed by the Church.